I nodded, glancing at my unconscious companions.
Keras must have noticed my concern. “I wouldn’t worry about them. Your cloak should keep Sera very comfortable. As for the other guy? If he’s really a Hartigan, he’ll be fine.”
“You know House Hartigan?” I turned my head back to Keras in surprise. “Thought you were a foreigner.”
“Oh, I know House Hartigan quite well. Friend of mine learned quite a bit from Blake Hartigan, in fact. They’re pretty prominent where I come from, too.”
“Huh.” I’d always been under the impression that most of our noble houses had come across from the mainland in their entirety during some sort of cataclysmic event, but maybe that wasn’t accurate. “Fair enough. Well, good night, then?”
Keras gave me a smile that seemed very… genuine. Friendly, even. “Don’t worry about anything. I’ll keep watch over the camp. You’re safe.”
Safe.
After the last day, I had a hard time believing that, but I decided to do my best to pretend.
I must have fallen asleep at some point, because I woke up abruptly to the sound of clashing steel.
It took me a moment to orient myself. I found Derek and Keras staring each other down, blades crossed.
I stammered out words. “Woah, both of you, please calm down.”
Derek’s gaze flicked to me. “This man is a wanted criminal.”
Keras grunted. “I’m cleared of all charges, actually. I’d be glad to explain if you’d lower your weapon.”
“Not going to do that until I’m convinced we’re safe. Corin, what happened?”
I sat up. “It’s safe, Derek. Katashi sent us to Keras. We’re all on the same side.”
Well, more or less. But I’m not going to complicate things further by bringing up the political complexities of our situation.
Derek’s eyes narrowed. “You’re absolutely certain of this?”
“Yes, Derek. Believe me, if Keras wanted us dead, he could have easily killed us by now.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.” Derek took a step back, sheathing his weapon. “But if Katashi sent us here, I suppose it’s probably safe.”
Keras sheathed his own weapon. “I appreciate that you’re willing to listen to reason.” He reached out with his hand. “And you’re quick with those blades. I wouldn’t mind testing your skills at some point under friendlier terms.”
Derek hesitated for just a moment before accepting the gesture, grabbing Keras wrist. “I’ll look forward to it.”
With that resolved, I went back to sleep.
The walk to the train station was grueling, but not as bad as I’d expected. The ring had done wonders for my injuries overnight. I was still limping, and I had to stop frequently due to tremors in my right leg, but I felt mostly functional.
I’d kept the rock with Sera overnight, hoping it might do a bit to repair the damage to her lungs, but I knew it wasn’t likely.
Keras used some kind of magnetism magic to pull the remaining metal shards out of my right hand. It was painful for a few moments, but the ring worked quickly to repair the damage.
Sera and Derek were both up and seemingly in good health, for the most part.
Derek had a killer headache. I offered to loan him the ring for a few minutes to get rid of it. He just looked at me like I was a madman. Given his last experience with magic rings, yeah, maybe that wasn’t such a good suggestion. So, he just contented himself to complain a little bit here and there.
Sera was in the worst shape. She kept trying to talk, but not a sound issued from her lips. Occasionally, she’d still break into fits of coughing, and we had to stop on two occasions when she had trouble catching her breath.
When I went to measure the mana in her attunement, Derek and Keras both got a look at her mark.
“Never seen anything like it,” Derek offered. “It’s not a standard attunement.”
Keras leaned a little closer. “Huh. Haven’t seen many Dominion Marks with that degree of complexity around here.”
I stared at him. “Do you know what it does?”
He shook his head. “Sorry, don’t recognize that one. I know some people who might, but they’re not here.” He frowned. “Unless Wrynn is. She’d probably know.”
“Wrynn?” I asked.
“Wrynn Jaden, the one who made your box. If she’s still around here, we could try to track her down. I’m a little worried about her, truth be told. It’s not like her to leave her box behind anywhere, for any reason. When that thing recharges in a few months, we might want to try to summon her with it.”
I nodded absently. Jaden was supposedly hundreds of years dead, but considering who the suggestion was coming from, I decided he probably knew what he was talking about.
I liked the idea of meeting Wrynn Jaden eventually, but for the moment, I had other plans for the box.
I pressed the mana watch against Sera’s attunement.
It displayed 0/0.
That was not a good sign at all.
I turned to Keras. “You wouldn’t happen to have any way of fixing mana scarring, would you?”
He shook his head sadly. “Sorry, Corin. I’m not a healer.”
I wasn’t sure how to phrase my follow up question, so I just asked. “I don’t want to be rude, but… what are you? Are you another visage? Or a servant of the Tyrant in Gold?”
Keras just laughed. “I’m neither of those, I assure you. I’ll have to think about the best way to explain. Every time I’ve tried to tell people around here about my abilities it’s ended poorly.”
A fair answer, but I still wanted to know more. I had so many questions.
I turned back to Sera, patting her on the shoulder. “We’ll find a way to get you healed.”
Sera nodded back to me. Her eyes were filled with determination.
And, fortunately, she did seem to like the new sword.
The train ride took about ten hours.
Derek and Keras spent most of that time bantering with each other, and I was pretty sure they went out and had a sparring match on the roof of the train at one point.
Sera and I couldn’t talk to each other, but I felt closer to her than I ever had. We sat next to each other, exchanging notes. Fortunately, Keras had paper and he’d been willing to give it to us for a good cause.
Her first note was particularly endearing.
Corin,
Stop thinking about going after Jin.
You have more important things to worry about, like the things that I want.
Also, possibly the friends who didn’t betray us. They’re somewhat important, too.
Sincerely,
Sera
Signing and addressing it was completely unnecessary, given we were right next to each other, but it was so very Sera that it made me feel better.
She was right, of course.
It was probably better that I didn’t try to find Jin again immediately. The wounds were too fresh for both of us, both metaphorically and literally. There was a reasonable chance he’d want to kill me when we saw each other again, and I couldn’t blame him for it.
But I wasn’t going to blame myself, either.
I was going to move forward.
It took a while to find Marissa and Patrick.
This was because, rather than being in their rooms, they had been waiting outside of the tower for us.